


Defective Princess

by bringingglory



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Crying, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Self-Loathing, Spring of Power (Legend of Zelda), Spring of Power Memory Extended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27789052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bringingglory/pseuds/bringingglory
Summary: Zelda tries to unlock her power and fails. Again.And then, the spiral of self-loathing.
Relationships: (i do ship zelink but this can also be read platonically), Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Kudos: 41





	Defective Princess

Zelda came to the Spring of Power for answers, and as always, she only got more questions. Such as:

_“What’s wrong with me?”_

A broken sob tore through her as she wrapped her arms around herself.

 _Please, tell me._ She wanted to beg. _Why am I such a failure? Tell me, please._

But as always, the statue did not respond. 

The cold waters of the spring swirled around her as the chill of Akkala’s perpetual autumn raised goosebumps along her bare arms. Her skin had gone numb from the cold until she could only feel little splinters of sharp pain shooting through her aching muscles. Her prayer gown hung heavy on her body from the water soaking through the fabric. The weight of it made her want to sink down into the frigid water. She was so tired. So, so tired.

_Please. Please. Please. Tell me. What have I done wrong?_

Zelda barely registered the splash of someone stepping into the spring behind her. All she could focus on was the numbness of the cold creeping in as the splashing grew closer, but when a warm hand landed on her shoulder, she spun around.

Link stood waist-deep in the water a few inches away from her, eyebrows scrunched together and eyes wide and full of concern.

 _Are you okay?_ He seemed to ask.

And something inside her broke like the tides of a wild river bursting through a dam. The careful walls she kept up around her worries and fears and despair splintered. She surged forward and buried her face in his shoulder, chasing the warmth of his hand.

 _“What’s wrong with me?”_ Her voice tore out of her throat like a dagger. “Why, why, why, why, _why—”_

Not an ounce of power. Not a mother to help her. Not one damn word from the Goddess. Why couldn’t she hear _anything?_

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” he whispered.

Another sob tore through her and Link wordlessly wrapped his arms around her. He was so warm and solid, so unlike the shifting icy waters churned around her. She clung to him to stay afloat, fingers digging into the fabric of his tunic, into the muscle of his shoulders, clinging and clinging and clinging and trying to stop her legs from giving out.

Something ugly beat against the inside of her chest, trying to claw its way out of her skin.

She was broken. She was a failure. And she would doom them all.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

For being a failure. For being the worst princess Hyrule ever had. For shackling Hyrule with a defective princess. 

She tried so hard to protect her kingdom. She threw herself into her research and worked to revive the Guardians and unlock the secrets of the old technology, but what did she have to show for it? What would it be worth if she couldn’t unlock this damned power?

“There’s nothing wrong with you.”

But there was. There was, there was, there _was._ If there was nothing wrong with her, she would have unlocked this power by now, but even with the increasing monster attacks and the threat of Ganon looming on the horizon, she _still_ couldn’t do it.

“Of all the princesses I could have been born as—” Of all the princesses that unlocked their powers with ease, the ones that listened to their fathers when he said they were wasting their time, the ones that the Goddess would actually speak to. “Why did I have to be born as _me?”_

Born as a failure. Born as Hyrule’s downfall. Born as Zelda. Not doing enough, never doing enough, never _being_ enough.

Link stood solid like a pillar as she cried messy tears into his tunic. She was rapidly losing feeling in her toes, and she couldn’t tell if those violent shivers were from the cold or her sobs. The warmth of his shoulder was leaching into her numb fingertips, but she could barely feel it through the buzzing in her head. Loud, like a swarm of wasps. Like the echoes of her father’s voice berating her reverberating through the castle halls. Like the ghosts of her people if she couldn’t unlock this power.

_What’s wrong with me?_

_What can I do?_

_Why?_

_Why?_

_Why—_

“Princess,” he said.

But she had no words left. They were all clogged up in her throat and in her bones and in her head, rattling around inside her chest. 

“There’s nothing wrong with you.”

“I can’t—I can’t—”

But he understood, because he was Link, and he didn’t always need words to understand. He let her twist her hands into the fabric of his tunic and wrapped her in the steadiness of his heartbeat until the insistent, demanding, pleading echoes of _why, why, why_ faded away.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> saw this fanart [here](https://snickerduu.tumblr.com/post/635767937283866624/please-just-tell-me-what-is-it-whats-wrong) and then i wanted to write something for it because the ANGST and the HURT/COMFORT
> 
> anyway, thank you for reading!


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